Snow day pushes contract decision back one day

AUSTINTOWN — Austintown Board of Education members must wait one more day for an answer from the Austintown Education Association.

On Thursday the AEA refused the board’s request for an arbitrator to settle the negotiations over contract language about teachers’ planning time and the input they have to schedule it. The school board has tried to eliminate language in the old contract that gives teachers input on scheduling their planning time.

The AEA will hold a meeting at 4 p.m.Wednesday to discuss its options, said Alf Nelson, the AEA’s labor consultant from the Ohio Education Association. Superintendent Doug Heuer said the board will have a special meeting on Thursday at 7 a.m.